An HR manager's nightmare: The hybrid professional

(Note: This is part three of a three part series to share my thoughts on what leaders, managers, and HR teams need to know, consider, and implement when it comes to recruiting, hiring and retaining hybrid talent. Read part one here and part two here)

It's time to hire for a role. The job is posted, the applications come pouring in, but wait, these candidates have diverse backgrounds with varying amounts of job experience.

It's hard to tell one candidate's actual expertise because they hold three different masters degrees in art, technology, and engineering. Another looks like a job hopper. Another seems unfocused. And another appears to be in the midst of a career overhaul after spending twenty years in a completely different sector.

How is a recruiter or HR specialist supposed to make sense of candidates with deep and wide experiences who could fit an array of boxes but don't fit one perfectly?

Is this when the candidate is ejected from the pool?

How are hybrid professionals supposed to make it past the initial screening, let alone the interview, or even the performance management process?

Are hybrid professionals doomed in traditional HR structures?

HR managers, it's time to shake off old models, methods and mindsets of recruitment, hiring and retention. It's time to realize some roles are for experts, others for generalists, and others for hybrids. There are THREE types of talent you're vetting.

Knowing which role is for which type of worker and getting the right fit is a make or break metric on both sides of the equation.

Hybrids don't want to be pigeonholed into narrow roles, generalists can't do the work hybrids do, and experts will be overwhelmed if they're stretched to be hybrids.

Only hybrids are the type of worker who blends multiple talents, identities, and skills into something that defies categorization.

Rewind ten years, companies didn't know they needed a social media manager (a job for a hybrid professional) or a Director of BizDevOps (an obvious hybrid job).

Truth be told, I'm not an HR person and haven't worked in talent management. As someone who's obsessed with hybrid professionals, these are my recommendations based on my research and personal experiences.

In business management fashion, here's a list of things for HR managers to start, stop, or continue doing when it comes to attracting, hiring, and retaining hybrid professionals.

START DOING

1. DON'T BE AFRAID TO USE "HYBRID PROFESSIONAL" IN A POSTING (especially if you're looking for a unicorn 🦄.)...or hybrid thinker or hybrid worker or hybrid talent….(see photo of an actual job posting).

2. KNOW WHEN YOU'RE HIRING FOR A HYBRID: Today, a sign of a hybrid role is either when two existing roles are smooshed together into something new, or juxtaposing abilities are married. Hybrid jobs sound like "Creative Technologist," "Emergent Digital Designer," and "Cybersecurity Analyst."

3. CREATE DUAL REPORTING STRUCTURES: Sometimes it doesn't make sense for a hybrid to only work on one team when they need to belong to a couple. Find flexible reporting structures.

4. ALLOW FOR NEW JOB TITLES: Merge words together to allow hybridity to come through (see number 2)

5. MAKE PROFESSIONAL IDENTITY PART OF THE HR FOCUS: We make assumptions about who people are based on resumes, application materials, and their performance. Ask people how they want to be seen. Start talking about professional identity as much as we talk about skills and abilities.

6. ASK HYBRID FOCUSED INTERVIEW QUESTIONS: Example questions: 1) What are your core professional identities, the ones you have the greatest expertise in? 2) How do your core professional identities fit together? 3) Tell me a story about a product, process, or outcome where your primary professional identities were used in tandem to achieve an amazing result. 4) Are you a hybrid professional? Do you integrate your different professional identities together? If so, how? What happens when you do? 5) Are you considered someone who is a strong cross-disciplinary thinker, translator, boundary crosser, or chameleon? Can you elaborate as to why and how you use this to achieve positive results? 6) What is your unique value as a hybrid professional?

STOP DOING

1. CONFUSING GENERALISTS WITH HYBRIDS: If you have a hybrid role you need to fill in your company, the odds are you need a hybrid professional to fill it, not someone who wears multiple hats.

2. HIRING A HYBRID AND THEN PIGEONHOLING THEM ONCE THEY HAVE THE JOB: This is the worst and will cause a hybrid to become quickly frustrated and/or leave the job.

3. HIRING FOR A SPECIALIST AND THEN CELEBRATING HYBRIDITY ONCE THEY'RE IN THE ROLE: Yes, this happens. A hybrid might scale back and play your game to get the job, but they shouldn't have to. When you make the boxes too tight, you're missing out on the gifts a hybrid truly brings to your company.

4. STOP SAYING "THEY WEAR A LOT OF HATS" DURING ANY PART OF THE HIRING PROCESS: Instead, ask a candidate about which "hats" matter the most to them, and more importantly, how their different hats fit together. If they can't explain the relationships between their hats, they're likely not a hybrid.

5. SEEING JOB HOPPING OR NONLINEAR CAREER EXPERIENCE AS A RED FLAG: A hybrid brings a plethora of wide ranging, diverse experience with them that doesn't make sense. You have to ask more questions during the interview. See interview questions (number five above)

CONTINUE DOING

1. PERFORM A TALENT AUDIT AND AN "IDENTITY" AUDIT OF YOUR COMPANY: Know how many people in your organization identify as experts, generalists, or hybrids. Knowing this ratio and proportion will help in future transitions and restructures.

2. MAKE SURE HYBRIDS ARE ON THE RIGHT TEAMS: If a manager is trying to lead a new process, combine teams, create a new department, or break silos, those are spaces where hybrid professionals are dire.

3. DEFINE PERFORMANCE METRICS GEARED TOWARDS HYBRID PROFESSIONALS: Outputs for a hybrid professional might include the number of new collaborations formed, types of methodologies combined to develop a new product, or stakeholders brought in from diverse sectors. The performance metrics of hybridity will take a slightly different shape as a result of their ability to converge different ideas, processes, and people.

Whew, that was quite the list. I know there's more to add.

Send me a note with your thoughts on what I missed!